Welcome to Alone Rangers in 2024
In 2024 I’d like to expand my perspective and invest more time in relationships and the broader world around me.
I’ve been blessed with some time off; I’m not due back at work until next Monday, which means three weeks of no work - well, almost none. My role means I need to dip in every so often, although the team at my business has been terrific looking after everything in my absence.
I’m also deep into preparing for a house move in early February and have used this opportunity to cull severely and spring clean decades of accumulated ‘stuff’. There are boxes in my garage that haven’t been opened since I moved into the current house five years ago.
I’ve realised I am a minimalist at heart; I’m not a hoarder, and I feel no compunction to keep a myriad of things just because they might be useful at some indeterminate time in the future.
As I have aged, I’ve started to feel a rebellious spirit inhabit me; I have no desire to live in a large home in the suburbs and spend my weekends searching for the perfect cushions to decorate the couch, contrary to the Western world's accepted stereotype that appears to rate possessions and wealth as benchmarks.
My most valued possessions are my relationships.
For decades, I have believed my job was my job - building a business and growing my income and assets. I bought into the ‘start-up’ vision of money, wealth and business success as my objectives whilst occasionally parroting a line about concurrently making the world better.
Today, I realise that before making the world a better place, I need to be a better human.
I’ve spent decades in small business, and I’ve associated with and met very wealthy people, investors and people who represent the interests of investment funds with hundreds of millions of dollars, where a $50 million deal is just a normal Tuesday morning.
For too long, I was sucked in by this. I had a revelation born from reflecting on a number of these interactions. These people think of the world through a prism of money - how much they made on a deal, the growth in the dollars. Their focus is on the money; the people and products are ancillary. My mind thinks the other way around. I am not motivated by wealth.
I start with the people because you will create an amazing product or service if you have amazing people around you. If you have an amazing product or service that fulfils a real need, then that will inevitably create financial rewards.
Sure, I need to eat, and I’d like to live comfortably - and that doesn’t mean driving a Porsche, but rather living quietly and, most importantly, being able to support my children and others in my life in their endeavours.
2024 will be the year I start to transition towards a new mode of life. I plan to distance myself from the day-to-day responsibilities of running my business. My current sloughing off of unneeded and surplus possessions is another step.
A shack on the beach? More tattoos. More earrings. Even longer hair (I’m close to a viable ponytail). Stronger in my body through more time for physical activity. Stronger in my spirit as I devote more time to my inner self.
Over time, I intend my pattern of life to alter to move towards one that is much more focused on the people in my life - romantic and platonic. To form deeper and stronger connections with myself and those around me. To free up my mind and give me time to range more widely across my dreams and desires. To learn more about myself, to write more, to think more.
A few months ago, I jotted down these thoughts about the life I would like to lead:
A more purposeful life
A more content life
A less impactful life
A simpler life
A more helpful life
A more creative life
A more joyful life
What the final form of this will take is unclear. I know I wish it to be unselfish, that my actions are supportive, that they are not reductive but rather explore ideas deeply rather than superficially.
Where does this take my musings here on Alone Rangers?
This blog/newsletter/rambling started a few years ago when I was truly in the depths of solitariness, and through therapy and reading, I realised the undercurrent of loneliness that has plagued my life since childhood.
In 2024, I still intend to explore those feelings. Each time I write, I scratch a scab in my emotional well-being, and that’s a positive. Sometimes, it is painful, but always ultimately beneficial. Setting out these feelings on the screen is genuinely cathartic.
I now have a basic feeling for the rhythm of my writing; I’d like to expand my perspective and invest more time in relationships and the broader world around me. I suspect it’s a trope to say ‘my journey’; however, that’s the reality.
I’ve become very interested in the types of relationships we have. Our world is so bound up in stereotypical heteronormative monogamy, for example - yet so often, these end in emotional and financial damage, especially, and most often, to the female in the equation.
I’ve lived so much of my life between these narrow boundaries. It’s time to push those boundaries outward to explore new ways to form intellectual, physical and emotional connections with people I care about.
I’m excited to see how the year unfolds!
"To be alone is to be different, to be different is to be alone." — Suzanne Gordon
Next time: Loneliness in a hyper connected world
Hi David,
A great written piece. Thank you. It has certainly given me scope to reflect on going into 2024. Where I want to channel my energies and resources post surgery. Ian